Design and methods
Three research questions were used to explore nurses’ practice:
● What are the experiences of nurses who care for patients with MBO and their families in acute care, ambulatory cancer care, community care, and palliative care settings?
● How comfortable are nurses with providing care for these patients and their families?
● What do nurses identify as their perceived needs when caring for patients with MBO and their families?
Ethical approval
Ethics approval of the study protocol was completed at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre prior to data collection.
Sample
The researchers’ initial goal was to recruit a convenience sample of 20 nurses who had cared for patients with MBO in the past 6 months across four settings. Potential participants from Sunnybrook’s in-patient oncology units, ambulatory cancer centre, and palliative care unit were identified through the advance practice nurses in the Cancer Program. In collaboration with Toronto Community Care Access Centre, case managers were consulted to identify potential community nurse participants. Nurses were approached to consider participation in the study with personal letters of invitation signed by the investigators that explained the purpose of the study, the nature of study involvement, and the plan for further contact by the research team. Nurses who expressed an interest in participating filled out a form with contact information that was forwarded to the research assistant (RA). The RA then contacted the participant to answer any questions they might have about the study. A prepared script was written to explain the study in detail, answer participants’ questions, and determine their willingness to be involved. Interviews took place over the phone or in person once written informed consent was obtained.
There were challenges with recruitment;
however, six nurses were individually interviewed. To collect sufficient data for saturation, two focus groups were conducted to capture the perspectives of the nurses at the palliative care unit and the ambulatory cancer setting at Sunnybrook. Invitations to attend one of two 1-hour focus group sessions, conducted on two separate dates, were extended via e-mail to nurses from each site. A total of nine participants attended the two focus groups, achieving saturation of experiences.
Participant characteristics
A total of 15 registered nurses participated in the study. Three of the nurses worked on an in-patient cancer unit, six in an ambulatory cancer centre, one in the community, and five on an in-patient palliative care unit. Most of the participants had 11 or more years’ experience of caring for cancer patients (range 1–30 years). The majority were female and their mean age was 56. Half of the nurses had a Bachelor’s degree and 6.3% a Master’s degree. Interestingly, all of the nurses indicated they had enhanced oncology or palliative care knowledge; 50% had completed specialised certification in either oncology or palliative care.
Interview procedure
Participation involved a one-time interview conducted by the RA for the first six recruited participants. The interviews lasted 22 to 60 minutes (mean 40 minutes). Open-ended
questions were used to explore the nurses’ experiences of caring for patients with MBO and their families. A semi-structured interview guide provided some direction yet also allowed adaptation to the narratives presented and areas of interest raised by the participants. At the end of each interview, participants were encouraged to add any additional comments. The interviews were audio-taped and transcribed verbatim.
The two focus groups were conducted by one of the research team (MF) and the RA over a 1-hour period. The questions asked were based on the original interview manual; as with the individual interviews, the sessions were audio-taped and transcribed verbatim.
Analysis
A qualitative descriptive approach to data analysis was used to encourage repeated immersion in the transcripts prior to coding and constructing key messages from the nurses’ experiences (Silverman, 2000). Transcript analysis
was completed by researchers PD, KS, and SM. The qualitative data analysis tool NVIVO was used to identify portions or sections of the data that corresponded to a particular idea. Familiarisation of transcript content occurred through a series of repeated readings, and broad coding headings were identified. The coded material for each category was then reviewed, consensus attained among the researchers, and overarching key messages generated to reflect the broader ideas the nurses had shared.